Does SBS include instant messaging? A promotional piece from Microsoft says it is.

I was cleaning out my collection of CDs and found an eval kit for 'Windows Sbs 2003 Premium edition' with a code for 180 day eval, etc. in the box was a booklet with about 12 pages. on page 4 it talks about 'Windows Small busienss server make it easy for people to share information and data....integrated e-mail and instant messaging improves...'.

Instant messaging? was that something that was talked about (the booklet has a copyright on the back of 2003).

Who is Participating?

Integrated IMing is not included in SBS other than with the use of Windows Messenger or Windows Live Messenger which would relay messages through Microsoft's external servers rather than internally. If you want to integrate messaging internally you will either need to add Windows Live Communication Server or follow the link that I provided in the question you originally referenced which is to follow this article:

I kinda knew it wasn't in there. My question was more a curiosity as to whether you noticed / heard initially that they were talking about having IM in SBS 2003 then dropped it as a feature by the time they released the OS?

I believe it was just one of those things that didn't get included because it caused too many issues out of the box. But the good news is that SBS Cougar (the next version) will definitely include it because of Exchange 2007's Unified Messaging platform.